# Are full-spectrum lightbulbs effective against vampires? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 16, 2006, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-full-spectrum-lightbulbs-effective-against-vampires/360922 "2006-06-16T14:24:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-full-spectrum-lightbulbs-effective-against-vampires/360922/21 "2006-06-16T20:49:44Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] Reload with wooden pellets, silver coins, some guitar strings and you can take out vampires, werewolfs, and the Elder gods. [/QUOTE] Cool deal, except that I happen to like some of the Elder Gods. Even hope to become one myself someday… ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-full-spectrum-lightbulbs-effective-against-vampires/360922/22 "2006-06-16T20:55:13Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] Reload with wooden pellets, silver coins, some guitar strings and you can take out vampires, werewolves, and the Elder gods. [/QUOTE] That is a good point. However, don’t you think you could use silver _plated_ bullets for werewolves? Solid silver ones would be very expensive especially if you want to use them in a machine gun in case you stumble upon a whole herd of werewolves. Surely, their effectiveness is just due to surface area contact with vital organs. Solid silver ones aren’t much better for that. If I knew for certain, silver plated ones are just as good, I wouldn’t feel guilty about selling them as self-defense projectiles and make a nice profit on something that is very cheap to make. However, if they aren’t effective against real werewolves, I could just see the product liability suits rolling in as the body count grows from a tragically failed defense. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-full-spectrum-lightbulbs-effective-against-vampires/360922/23 "2006-06-16T23:00:56Z")
[QUOTE=Happy Clam] Guitar strings? [/QUOTE] A joke. One of H.P. Lovecraft’s protagonist’s Silver John? Singing John? Defeated evil creatures by playing aguitar with silver strings. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-full-spectrum-lightbulbs-effective-against-vampires/360922/24 "2006-06-16T23:02:25Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] However, don’t you think you could use silver _plated_ bullets for werewolves? [/QUOTE] Nah, this is one of those things I don’t want to screw around with. You get what you pay for. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-full-spectrum-lightbulbs-effective-against-vampires/360922/25 "2006-06-16T23:19:01Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] A joke. One of H.P. Lovecraft’s protagonist’s Silver John? Singing John? Defeated evil creatures by playing aguitar with silver strings. [/QUOTE] It’s Silver John and not Lovecraft; it was Manley Wade Wellman. Good books, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-full-spectrum-lightbulbs-effective-against-vampires/360922/26 "2006-06-16T23:34:28Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] It’s Silver John and not Lovecraft; it was Manley Wade Wellman. Good books, by the way. [/QUOTE] Ah, thanks. I better come up with something else for the Elder gods, then. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Clam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3bc359/32.png) [@Happy\_Clam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Clam)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-full-spectrum-lightbulbs-effective-against-vampires/360922/27 "2006-06-16T23:39:04Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] Ah, thanks. I better come up with something else for the Elder gods, then. 🙂 [/QUOTE] I suggest a bullet to the head. Not _their_ head (?) silly, your head. Well, it’s surely preferable to the alternatives, if faced with an Elder God. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-full-spectrum-lightbulbs-effective-against-vampires/360922/28 "2006-06-16T23:57:28Z")
[QUOTE=Happy Clam] I suggest a bullet to the head. Not _their_ head (?) silly, your head. Well, it’s surely preferable to the alternatives, if faced with an Elder God. [/QUOTE] Nah, just be pals with this [guy.](http://www.barbariankeep.com/barbar.jpg) Conan’s taken out plenty of those guys. ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-full-spectrum-lightbulbs-effective-against-vampires/360922/29 "2006-06-17T00:15:09Z")
[QUOTE=Larry Borgia] I think Blade and his buddies were using some sort of UV ray gun against the super vamps in Blade II. [/QUOTE] Actually, IIRC, they used the UV gun in _Blade_, UV bombs (and possibly grenades) in _Blade II_, and some concentrated UV-beam-built-into-a-bow thing in _Blade Trinity_. (I am in no way proud that I can kinda remember these things.) 😛 ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-full-spectrum-lightbulbs-effective-against-vampires/360922/30 "2006-06-17T03:05:33Z")
So, what about laser beams? Do they have too narrow a spectrum to do any good? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-full-spectrum-lightbulbs-effective-against-vampires/360922/31 "2006-06-17T17:56:39Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] just as good, I wouldn’t feel guilty about selling them as self-defense projectiles and make a nice profit on something that is very cheap to make. However, if they aren’t effective against real werewolves, I could just see the product liability suits rolling in as the body count grows from a tragically failed defense. [/QUOTE] You’d probably do better loading silver buckshot. Apparently there are some issues with casting and sizing silver bullets that are tricky, in that silver’s melting point is much higher than lead, and the finished product is much harder, soall the olds and paraphrenalia made for casting and sizing lead bullets won’t work so well. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-full-spectrum-lightbulbs-effective-against-vampires/360922/32 "2006-06-17T18:26:51Z")
Just don’t invite the damn vampire into your house, then it won’t be an issue. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-full-spectrum-lightbulbs-effective-against-vampires/360922/33 "2006-06-17T18:36:19Z")
[QUOTE=CynicalGabe] Just don’t invite the damn vampire into your house, then it won’t be an issue. 🙂 [/QUOTE] The trouble is those wall-hangings that say “Welcome to our humble home.” My poor sainted aunt hung one in her foyer. The next day we found her withered, bloodless body. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-full-spectrum-lightbulbs-effective-against-vampires/360922.md?page=1)